glucosamine

[Daniel Madar]

A friend of mine is taking this to avoid knee and tendon injuries. Anyone have any opinions? I don't know much about it.

Merciless is Mercy.

[Daedalus]

Is your friend taking it to help an existing injury or is he taking it as a prevention measure?

I've heard alot about using glucosamine to help rebuild damaged cartilege, and I understand that it may even help to support healthy cartilege. But as far as helping to prevent injury to cartilege, I don't know.

If your friend wants to take it to help support healthy cartilege, that's great, but I would also recommend flexibility training to make his joints more forgiving.

[Daniel Madar]

He's taking it as a preventative. He and I both follow a pretty hard core stretching regimen.

Merciless is Mercy.

[rubthebuddha]

a glucosamine/chondroiten complex was recommended as part of my rehab for knee injuries resulting in swelling around the joints (which, conveniently led to a unwelcomely fast trip down the stairs that concluded when my left knee smashed against the door).

as far as the results? i'm quite pleased. but the g/c complex was only part of the overall treatment. ice, not being allowed to work my legs hard two consecutive days, and being more aware of how i was working the joint were all parts, too. i'm not sure how much influence the g/c complex had, but i still take it daily because of the results i've had.

hope that helps.

-rtb

[sean_stonehart]

It's good stuff. I started taking it when I picked up training after a 3 year lull. It just made things easier on the knees to begin with but then I noticed it making it easier on all my joints. It's not a "end all beat all" kinda thing. It's like any maintenance drug, herbal or chemical, once you start the regimine you loose effectiveness if it's removed.

Every normal man must be tempted, at times, to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag and begin slitting throats.

-- H.L. Mencken

[anerlich]

Even www.quackwatch.com, (http://www.quackwatch.com,) the scourge of the TCM forum, has fairly good things to say about Glucosamine.

I take a capsule a day, and get regular joint tweaks from Jiu Jitsu, and seem to heal fairly quickly for a guy my age. This is hardly a scientific analysis, but it still seems to help.

[rubthebuddha]

sometimes someone just saying, "the shtuff worked for me" is far better than trying to sift through study after study or story after story each alleging the opposite and citing often sketchy evidence for their case.

so if it works for you, coo! works for me, too. :) the knee problems i was having a few months back haven't paid me a visit in quite a while (knock on wood), and i'd tally some of the credit up for my glucosamine/chondroiten complex.

-rtb